Every day, new potential customers flock here, from hockey hotbeds like India, China and Iran.

Plus, let’s face it, the Leafs could use the heat. As every business student knows, competition breeds success.

No one needs reminding the team has won exactly zero (0) Stanley Cups since the Original Six in 1967. Maybe a new team on their doorstep will put fire to their ass.

The NHL on Wednesday denied media reports that Las Vegas, Seattle, Quebec City and Toronto are in line for new franchises, totalling $1.4 billion in fees. The Vancouver Province says the Vegas team is a “done deal.” Sports Business News named Toronto, but did not specify where in the GTA.

My old Miss Universe pal Andrew Lopez fronted a fantasy bid in 2009 to plant an arena and team, the Toronto Legacy, at Downsview, as the Leafs’ “little brother.”

It went nowhere. The Leafs are quite happy as an only child. A spoiled one, at that.

In this town, you could put a team anywhere and it will sell out, once you get over the tricky hurdle of building a 20,000-seat rink.

In fact, Toronto has hosted two big-league teams before — the Shamrocks and Blueshirts (both NHA) before the First World War, and the Leafs and Toros (WHA) in the early 1970s.

If stingy old Harold Ballard had not forced the Toros out of town before the NHL-WHA merger in 1979, we might already have two NHL teams — and lord knows how many Stanley Cups.

But that was then. Now, a healthy rival to the Leafs seems a slam-dunk, sooner or later. Momentum builds.

If greater New York City, that hub of football, basketball and baseball, can support three NHL teams, surely we can handle a measly pair.

On Wednesday, as rumours swirled, MLSE boss Tim Leiweke told TSN Radio: “There’s a hockey team in Toronto. Today. This hockey team has not had the success we should or we could or we will (have). All I care about right now is the ‘will’ part.

“We’re gonna focus 100% on that and I’ll let Gary take care of expansion.”

Gary, as in NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, has always been coy about expansion, to Toronto or wherever, unless it involves some place with palm trees.

Last March, he said: “We haven’t decided to engage in a formal expansion process at this point, but we’re listening. There is a lot of interest, and some of that’s a testament to the state of the game right now.”

Perhaps the commish is not getting the message. Perhaps a few Dear Gary letters from fans might sway him.

Which brings me to my Dear Gary contest.

The prize? Two hockey tickets.

It’s as simple as a dump and chase.

Send me an e-mail — 67 words or less and titled Dear Gary — explaining why Toronto should have a new NHL team.

Suggest a name — Toros? Titans? Multiculturals? Gender-neutrals? — or a locale, but mostly try to convince the commish of how deserved it is and how much it would mean to you and your city.

Bettman may be a cold, cash-hungry lawyer — but surely he has a hockey soul, too.

To be inclusive, in modern Toronto fashion, e-mails against a local rival for the Leafs are also acceptable.

We’ll choose the most witty, imaginative and convincing pitch. I’ll also run a selection.

Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Send to mike.strobel@sunmedia.ca. Again, title the e-mail Dear Gary. Include full day and evening contact info.